


Metal

by aerographer (Aerographer)



Series: Anxiety [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Ive been sitting on this for like four months, M/M, eh, idk i think you guys might like this????, ughhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 19:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6437182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerographer/pseuds/aerographer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico had once heard somewhere that bleeding in the head would cause a metallic taste in the throat. He didn't know when he'd heard this, he didn't remember when, but it was burned into the back of his brain. A useless piece of information. Every so often it would bubble up to sit in the front of his mind, and Nico would find himself pondering it for a few minutes before going on with his task. He was used to it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Metal

**Author's Note:**

> I've been super inactive lately and I'm really sorry about that :'( but hey here's a work. I also was gonna make this longer but honestly, I just got bored with the idea. I hope you all like this and pls leave a comment!!!! Criticism is always welcome!!!!!

Nico had once heard somewhere that bleeding in the head would cause a metallic taste in the throat. He didn't know when he'd heard this, he didn't remember when, but it was burned into the back of his brain. A useless piece of information. Every so often it would bubble up to sit in the front of his mind, and Nico would find himself pondering it for a few minutes before going on with his task. He was used to it.

\---

When Nico di Angelo was ten years old, his world changed. A real hero came and saved him. A  _ hero _ . He almost couldn't believe it. The boy's name was Percy Jackson and he made Nico's heart pound and his stomach coil. He was perfect. The day went from from good to bad, though, in less than a minute. His sister left him. She left him to be on his own in a camp with people he didn't know. He wanted to be angry, but it was Bianca and he loved her more than anything in the world. He couldn't force his anger to stay. When his sister left to go find a goddess, Nico made Percy promise to keep Bianca safe. He worried for days until something inside him was cleaved away and he knew she was  _ gone _ .

When Nico di Angelo was ten years old, his sister died. She died with a broken promise and a statue and threw Nico's existence out of orbit. When Percy Jackson came back and told him what had happened, he'd lost control. He didn't want to believe it even though he knew it was true. He'd screamed and split the ground because even if he was angry ( **dying** ) he  _ couldn't _ let Percy die. Nico fled into the darkness of the woods. He found a giant mound of boulders and he could sense the hole leading into something that didn't stop and he ran through the crack without a backward glance. He laid on the floor and cried for hours. The dust in his mouth tasted of metal.

\---

When Nico was eleven years old, he'd been living on his own in the Labyrinth for a long while. He didn't know how long it had been, but Minos said it had been more than a year. He wanted his sister back. "A soul for a soul." That's what Minos said he had to do, that it would get his sister back. Nico was prepared to do this. He was prepared to do anything, really. Whatever it took. Over the course of the supposed year he was in the Labyrinth, Nico lost a terrifying amount of weight. His ribs stuck out and his skin lost its color. His nails became dry and brittle while his hair fell out in clumps. The few times he'd caught his reflection, he'd been startled. Nico had almost thought that the boy in the water staring back at him was a stranger. He tried to eat more after that. He went to McDonald's and ate Happy Meals whenever he was hungry. That wasn't very often.

The ghost of the great king Minos whispered in Nico’s ears, influencing his choices. ‘Percy killed the only family you had. Don’t you think he deserves the son of Hell’s wrath? Use his soul to get your sister back!’ His voice infiltrated Nico’s dreams with loud yells and horrible truths. The only thing this ghost seemed to want was revenge. He wanted Bianca back as much as Nico did. That's what threw Nico off. Why would this old man want to reunite the small family? He didn’t even know the eldest of the di Angelo children. Maybe he’d met her at judgement in the underworld. But still, this made Nico uneasy of the misty haze that remained of Minos. He managed to finally ditch the ghost for a small time, though. This proved to be a mistake.

Greyon’s ranch was like a moving, smaller, smellier version of Hades. The similarities in heat astounded Nico. Since when were places aloud to be this hot?? But it had cows. Cherry red sacred cows that belonged to Apollo. And they  _ mocked  _ him. They would moo and stand by the fence and perk up their ears and just have that adorable charm that cows tend to have, but when Nico’d get closer, they’d trot a few feet away before turning around and looking at him with amused brown eyes. They weren’t scared of him per say, just playful. They’d duck their heads and skip to the sides. Nico thought it odd that these animals weren’t scared of him, but he was happy none the less, because they would occasionally let Nico get closer to pet their soft noses or to let them lick the salt from his hands. When Nico found out that Greyon was slaughtering the cattle for  _ Kronos _ , Nico had been  _ furious _ . These cows were  _ sacred _ . Sacred as in: we don’t eat these because that's disrespectful to Apollo, but Greyon didn’t care. By the time Percy arrived, Nico was ready to chop off all three of Greyon’s heads and send him back to Tartarus, or take his soul into his blade.

When Percy arrived with three of his friends in tow, Nico just about sank into the shadows right then and there. Instead, he drew his sword and would’ve run the kid through if Greyon hadn’t stepped in. ‘Put that away, Mr. di Angelo. I ain’t gonna have my guests killin’ each other.’ Nico tried to protest but the ranch owner was having none of it. Rage burned through Nico’s entire body and he spat out insults before he could stop them. He was too  _ young  _ to be so  _ angry _ . Greyon made all of them load onto a weirdly painted automobile that looked incredibly out of place with its surroundings. In the middle of the tour, Greyon not so subtly let it slip that he was working for Luke Castellan. The events passed in a blur but next thing he knew, Nico was standing in front of a septic tank, summoning the ghost of his sister. Minos made a brief appearance to try and discourage Nico from trusting Percy, but he waved the spirit aside and chanted harder for his sister to appear. She did and the emptiness in Nico’s body tasted of metal.

\---

Only days after Nico di Angelo turned 13, his father was forcing him to capture the boy who held his heart. He didn't want to do it, but he knew that he had to. He had to make his father happy. He  _ had _ to know what happened to his mother. Nico felt horrible for doing it, but he had a plan. He could get Percy to bathe in the Styx. He could make him  _ invincible.  _ If he made Percy invincible, then maybe he would finally love him.

The sand of the monsters he crushed under his heel tasted of metal.

\---

When Nico di Angelo was 14, almost 15, Percy Jackson arrived at Camp Jupiter. Nico was petrified ( **in denial** ) and Percy  _ didn’t even remember him _ . He wasn’t invincible anymore. The most important thing Nico had ever done for him, and it was gone.  _ Gone _ . He had to keep himself in check, though, for his sister's sake. Nico knew that she suspected him of knowing Percy and she tried to question him but he  _ knew _ he couldn't tell her. She had to find out on her own. They all had to find out on their own.

\---

Nico had to help his friends. He had to help them close the Doors of Death and he had to do it  _ quickly _ .

So he went and did it himself. He was so stupid ( _ why did you do this why did you  _ **hurt** _ yourself you could have  _ **died-** ); why had Nico thought this was a good idea? In the Pit he’d been surrounded by monsters and blood and fire and  _ fear _ . He didn’t want to admit that he’d been terrified. Him, the Ghost King, was  _ scared  _ of some petty  _ monsters _ . Usually it was the other way around. Usually his fear didn’t consume him so wholly. His terror ( _ dread, panic, perturbation _ ) is what drew the monster to him. They descended onto Nico like starving hounds, they taunted him and scratched him and hurt him. Some of them  _ touched  _ him. He wanted to die.

Nico was in a jar when he started seeing things. First he saw his mother. Then his sister. Then he saw Percy. It was different though. When Percy’s face appeared in his dreams, he didn’t feel his stomach coil. He didn’t feel his heart jump into his throat. Instead, he just saw a friend. A teenager with sea colored eyes and black hair. His friend, Percy Jackson. Just a  _ friend _ . This was when Nico realized that he’d finally gotten over the hero. If he hadn’t been slowly starving to death, he probably would’ve been proud of himself. But, he was in fact, in a jar, suffocating and starving. When his visions and dreams weren’t about his friends, they were about a stranger. Someone with hair the color of the sun itself and eyes bluer than the sky. Nico could never remember the person's face but he didn’t have to because he knew they were  _ gorgeous _ .

A girl with choppy brown hair and kaleidoscope eyes saved him, along with a boy who reminded him of Captain America, and  _ Percy Jackson _ . Next Nico was with his sister  _ (his family) _ and other people he didn’t know and they were all so  _ worried _ about him Nico didn’t know what to  _ do _ about it. He’d never had this many friends before. He’d never had a family this big.

The aching in his chest tasted of metal.

\---

Upon the final fight with Gaia, Nico meets Will Solace. His personality shines brighter than his hair and his eyes are pools of blue that remind Nico of flying and drowning at the same time. He’s stunning and Nico loses his perception of time. Octavian is insane, he realizes, a second too late, and the sickly boy was flying through the air screaming like a child. There is an explosion, and the relative of Apollo is dead. He can feel it. Octavian is dead; Leo, however, is not. He doesn’t know how but Leo’s cheated death. Avoided Thanatos himself. His soul was far away, and blurry. It has moments of clarity and then it pulsed away from Nico’s senses.

Once the war is over and the dead are burned, Nico finds himself in the infirmary for four days with Will Solace. He comes crashing into Nico’s life like a wildfire full of brightness and worrying. Will Solace seems to genuinely want to know Nico and he can’t remember this ever happening to him before. No one has ever tried to get to know him. Will tells him stories and jokes and despite his mood, he laughs. He laughs a lot. When his four days are up, he asks why Will Solace would  _ ever  _ want to befriend  _ him _ , the King of Ghosts? He seemed slightly taken aback by Nico’s question, but answered that it just seemed like he needed a friend. Nico didn’t know how to respond to that. He left the infirmary and  _ didn’t _ look back ( **he did** ).

Nico couldn’t shake Will Solace that easily though, and the other boy found him at the Hades table during dinner. He made sure Nico was eating a full meal and asked him if he felt ok ( **he did** ). Will continued to bother Nico even after it had been a fair time since his stay in the infirmary. He seemed serious about the befriendment thing. After a few months, they were always with each other. If you were ever looking for Nico, you would find him with Will and vice versa. After dinner, they’d sit on the fireworks beach and talk for hours. Nico found himself letting out his worries and fears. He even talked about Bianca and Tartarus. For the first time in a long time, Nico found someone he could trust. Will, like his name stated, was Nico’s solace.The two remained extremely close friends for the next two years, until Nico was 17 and Will 18.

When they change ( **morph, alter, modify,** **_transform_ ** ) into something even better, they were sitting on the beach, on the last day of camp. The silence was awkward. Nico was looking at his hands, thinking about if he was really going to do this. He wanted to. He wanted to do this with his entire being and if he didn’t do it, he would lose his chance. Out of the corner of his eye, Nico glanced at Will. He was looking at Nico with his prepossessing eyes.   _ ‘I think I'm in love with you.’  _ was muttered under his breath and he thanked the gods when Will replied, in a tone that obviously stated that he wasn’t listening:  _ ‘What?’   _ Nico took this as his cue. Before he could convince himself not to, he leaned into Will and kissed him. It was the best day of his life.

The taste on Will's lips was that of metal.

**Author's Note:**

> NO SMUT FOR U HAHA


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